Consultant: Only one in ten islanders are organ donors - it's not good enough!

Friday 28 September 2018

A local doctor whose daughter was saved by an emergency heart transplant has described the number of islanders signed up as organ donors as “still disappointing” - despite a recent push to get more names on the register.

Recently released Health Department figures showed that over 200 islanders signed up to become donors following ‘Organ Donation Awareness Week’ earlier this month - but it still leaves Jersey proportionally way behind the UK.

On 1 September, 12,607 Jersey people were signed onto the register. Last week, this rose to 12,840 – marking an overall increase of 233 people - but that's still only around one-in-ten islanders. Meanwhile in the UK, over a third of the population are signed up.

While passionate campaigner Dr Neil MacLachlan welcomed the increase, stating that that “anyone signing up to the register is good news”, he expressed concern that Jersey was still lagging behind the UK and that awareness efforts were concentrated into a single week rather than across the whole year.

Pictured: Dr Neil MacLachlan with his daughter Catherine, whose life was saved by an emergency heart transplant and now runs a charity called the Love Hearts Appeal.

The hospital consultant gynaecologist experienced first-hand the importance of organ donation when his daughter, Catherine, went into terminal heart failure and was saved by an emergency heart transplant aged just 15. At the time, she was described as "the sickest child in the UK."

That transplant was only possible thanks to a stranger that had signed themselves up to the organ donation register, leading Dr MacLachlan to urge Jersey people to get themselves on the roll and have conversations with their loved ones about organ donation. 

Despite the recent sign-up surge, he described Jersey as still being “so far behind” the UK when it comes to organ donation. 

Pictured: The Hospital set up organ donation sign up areas at their two main entrances over the awareness week.

Proportionally, the percentage of people signed up as organ donors in England is triple that of registered donors in Jersey, despite the isolated ‘success’ of efforts during the awareness week to get islanders to sign up.

According to the most recent figures published by the NHS, 37% of people in England are registered as donors, which is just over three times the percentage of Jersey people who are signed up.

The most recent population statistic for Jersey stands at 105,500, meaning that just 12.1% of islanders have registered themselves as organ donors. 

Pictured: Dr MacLachlan is urging islanders to sign up as organ donors and to have conversations with their families about their intentions, to improve Jersey's proportion of those on the register.

Dr MacLachlan described the overall picture was “disappointing.”

“This is sad as we have equal rights to all organs if anyone in the Channel Islands requires a transplant,” he explained.

For Dr MacLachlan, these statistics show that Jersey needs to take more responsibility for its organ donation sign ups. 

Earlier this year, States Members voted in favour of introducing an opt-out organ donation policy.

“I think this makes us realise that the opt-out proposal might be even more important here than in the UK,” Dr MacLachlan added. 

If you’re not signed onto the register, you can do so by clicking here.